


A Symbol of All Things You Despise

by KahtyaSofia



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Backstory, Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-25
Updated: 2009-11-25
Packaged: 2017-10-03 18:02:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KahtyaSofia/pseuds/KahtyaSofia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Suzie doesn't exactly trust Ianto. Is it really due to her own downward spiral?</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Symbol of All Things You Despise

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd. All mistakes are my own. This is just a story that had to be told. No verification this really happened but I guess it's part of my own personal fanon now. I've never had an opinion as to whether Jack &amp; Suzie had a "history". I still don't. I left references to that 'ship' deliberately vague so you can read in to it what you want or don't want.

Jack waved absently without looking up from his paperwork when Owen called that he was leaving for the day. When Toshiko left, Jack glanced up and smiled at her wide-eyed face. The noise level in the Hub dropped dramatically and the dimming of the lights throughout was most likely Suzie's doing.

A movement at the far end of the common area caused Jack to glance up. He was pleased when he caught sight of Ianto slowly start up the stairs to the upper catwalk. He felt a small smile start on his lips at the sight of the young man's well shaped arse as it glided up the steps.

The smile was lingering on his mouth as Ianto passed out of his view and Jack went back to his paperwork. His still-warm cup of coffee sat beside him on the desk as a constant reminder of his newest employee. It was almost like having Ianto in his office with him, even when he really wasn't. Almost.

Jack looked up with a smile as Suzie stepped in to his office. She was dark complected with a style that was both industrial and bohemian at the same time. There was an edge to Suzie that seemed to have sharpened in recent months but Jack couldn't quite put his finger on what exactly about her had changed. Her work hadn't suffered but lately there seemed an unusual brightness to her eyes. She seemed to sometimes be suppressing a mania that's source Jack didn't understand.

Jack's smile lost some of its brightness, if not some its pleasantness when Suzie closed his office door behind her. With Ianto the only other person in the Hub to overhear, it meant the conversation was going to be about him.

"You didn't have to hire him." She said softly when she had seated herself across the desk from him.

"No, I didn't." Jack replied, still working on his paperwork.

"Then why did you?" Suzie asked in the same soft voice.

"Because I _wanted_ to." Jack replied still not looking up.

Suzie sighed. It sounded more like contemplation than it did frustration. "You could have shagged him, Retconed him and left him on the Plass. Did you have to bring him _in_ to the Hub?"

That had Jack's full attention. He set his pencil down and looked Suzie straight in the eye. "I'm not shagging him, I would have had to Retcon him too far back since I'm not even responsible for his knowledge of Torchwood or the Hub and where else would you have him work if not _in_ the Hub?"

"There are any number of places you could have taken him for a couple of hours, including his own flat most likely." Suzie said with great patience. "Once you were satisfied you could have sent him on his way. Why make up a job for him to fill?"

"Don't you dare act like your life isn't so much easier since he's been with us." Jack replied, pointing a finger directly at the woman across the desk. "When was the last time we went without lunch because no one had time to get any? When was the last time _you_ had to pick up your own dry cleaning? I _know_ you appreciate how tidy the hub is now because I've seen how easily you find things. You may not drink the coffee but I know for a fact the kid also brews a mean cup of tea."

"So we didn't realize until he started that we could actually use some help around here." Suzie conceded. "He's London, Jack! He is the embodiment of everything you've ever told me you despise. Yet he wags his little arse at you a few times and you bring him right inside with us."

"I didn't bring him in because he wagged his arse at me, although that was a sight to behold!" Jack smiled at the memory. "I brought him in because he knocked out a weevil and helped me catch a pterodactyl that _he_ located."

Suzie snorted and pulled a face. "It's like having a viper in the nest, Jack." She said softly. "Have you stopped to ask yourself why he was so desperate to come work for us?"

Jack shrugged. "He said it was the fact he was haunted by the memories of Canary Wharf. He doesn't know what to do with the memories." Jack considered his own words as well as the ones Ianto had spoken to him. "As if walking away from Torchwood altogether leaves him with no way to process the memories. No real purpose for going on."

"And you bought that?" Suzie asked incredulously. "Jack, he stalked you. He stalked _you_." She emphasized. "He didn't lay in wait for me or for Tosh or Owen. It was you he approached all three times, Jack. So I ask again, why didn't you just shag him like he wanted you to then send him packing?"

Jack considered Suzie from across his desk. He didn't answer her for quite awhile. She was putting a voice to thinks he'd hardly wanted to admit to himself until now. "Stalking anyone else wouldn't have done him any good. I _am_ Torchwood Cardiff. No one else had the authority to hire him. If you think he didn't know that when he showed up here then you sorely underestimate him." It occurred to Jack he'd better be sure not to do the same.

"Why?" Suzie asked pointedly.

"Why do _you_ work here?" Jack countered.

Suzie drew breath to answer and Jack waved a hand in dismissal. "That was rhetorical. My point is, we all have our reasons for being here at Torchwood and whatever satisfaction we might get from the good things we do," Jack paused for effect. "none of us are here solely for the warm fuzzies."

"I still think you should have sha….." Jack didn't let Suzie finish her statement.

"What is it that really bothers you here, Suzie?" He asked, sitting back in his chair and steepling his fingers. "That I hired someone formerly with Torchwood London? Or that I hired a _man_ that doesn't want to shag _you_?"

Suzie had the good graces to look abashed.

"Oh yes, I know about Owen." Jack confirmed. "Little goes on inside this Hub that escapes me." He sat forward in his chair and pierced Suzie with his eyes. "Now, let's review. You are my second-in-command which means just what it sounds like, _I_ am in command. I do my own hiring for my own reasons. I'm not shagging Ianto. At least not right now." Jack conceded with a grin and a small laugh. "He needs to be here for reasons of his own and I have found that I need him to be here and my reasons are not what you might expect." He didn't dare add that Jack's primary reason for the hire hadn't 'popped up' until after the roll around on the warehouse floor.

Jack picked up his pencil again and returned to his paperwork. "We're done here."

Suzie stood as if to leave then turned back. "You know Toshiko and I saw him when we were combing through Canary Wharf for tech."

"I do know that because he saw the two of you." Jack said without looking up. "And now we have an experienced Researcher to help with the cataloging and archiving. Good night, Suzie."

"Coffee before I leave for the night, Sir?"

Jack looked up to see Ianto standing in the door to his office, hands in the pockets of his trousers."

"Please, Ianto. Thank you." Jack smiled genuinely at him.

When Ianto had placed Jack's mug next to him on the desk, he turned to leave. Jack stopped him with a question. "Still finding Cardiff lacking compared to London?"

Ianto turned back with a single raised eyebrow. "No. I came to understand quickly."

"Understand how?" Jack's brow furrowed.

"London was all about London. What they could get their hands on and exploit. The status they could achieve with Whitehall." Ianto paused to consider. "Cardiff is about what can and should be done to make sure we're all safe." Ianto smiled a slow, sly smile. "You may be arrogant and self-absorbed, Jack, but only with regard to your own……charms." He sobered again. "You would _never_ allow anything like the Ghost Shifts to occur."

Unsure of just what to say to that, Jack simply nodded once.

Ianto returned the nod and added a small smile before he turned and left the Hub.


End file.
